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Home-Court Edge Begins With Ball

Before each season, the managers for the U.C.L.A. men’s basketball team do not compile reports on opposing players or strategies. Instead, they are responsible for figuring out the brand of basketball used by the Bruins’ opponents.

The N.C.A.A. does not require the use of a specific brand of basketball during the regular season. The home team plays with its preferred type, whether it is Nike or Spalding or Adidas. The choice is often tied to the team’s equipment contract. Because each brand has a distinct feel, it is just another reason it is hard to play on the road in college basketball.

“It is funny that we don’t use the same ball everywhere we go,” said Scott Garson, an assistant at U.C.L.A. “You’ve got enough things to fight on the road; the last thing you need to fight is the ball.”

This lack of uniformity makes college basketball unlike other major American sports. In the professional ranks, the N.B.A. has an official basketball (Spalding), the N.F.L. an official football (Wilson) and Major League Baseball an official baseball (Rawlings). In college football, each offense uses its own footballs, meaning there is no comparable level of unfamiliarity when, for instance, Ohio State plays at Michigan.

The home-court advantage that college basketball teams have throughout the regular season is winding to a close now that March has arrived. Conference tournaments, some of which have already begun, generally use one brand of ball, and the N.C.A.A. tournament, which opens March 13, has a contract with Wilson.

The N.C.A.A. rule book mandates that basketballs must meet certain seemingly self-evident requirements to ensure some level of uniformity. For example, Section 15, Article 1 says, “the ball shall be spherical.” A ball must have a “deeply pebbled leather or composite cover” and “the traditionally shaped eight panels.” The rule book also specifies the three colors a ball can be (Orange 151, Red-Orange 173 or Brown 1535), and contains a detailed explanation about air pressure. The finer points state that basketballs used in men’s games can be a maximum 30 inches and a minimum 29 ½ inches in circumference, and they cannot weigh less than 20 ounces or more than 22 ounces.

But the difference in basketballs from brand to brand is not insignificant. Finicky shooters and ball-handling point guards might complain if they think certain brands are too slick or too rough, or that a certain basketball’s grooves are too deep or too shallow.

“It’s definitely a difference, and I think that’s something that goes under the radar sometimes,” Pittsburgh guard Ashton Gibbs said. “It affects a little bit of everything: the handle, the gripping of it and the shooting of the ball. You just have to get used to it.”

Teams stock up on a variety of brands, practicing with their opponents’ brands before making trips. At pregame shootarounds, they can make adjustments based on the court, the rim or the shooting backdrop, and can familiarize themselves with the feel of the basketballs, too.

In general, though, players said they were not too affected by the differences in basketballs.

“They’re all round; they’re all pretty much the same size,” Florida State guard Luke Loucks said. “It’s like the same argument with adjusting to hoops. And as much as balls do vary in composition and feel, they’re all still basketballs.”

Although Wilson basketballs are used in the N.C.A.A. tournament, they are not the most popular brand in major college basketball. There are seven brands used among the 74 programs in the six Bowl Championship Series conferences. The most popular is Nike, which is used by 47 teams, or 63.5 percent. Wilson is the second most popular, used by 12 teams, or 16.2 percent.

Photo

Coach Bo Ryan uses Sterling balls at Wisconsin, which is the only major team to do so. Wisconsin is a big winner at home.Credit
Andy Manis/Associated Press

Wisconsin is the only program from the six major conferences that uses a Sterling basketball. When Bo Ryan was the coach at Division III Wisconsin-Platteville, Sterling provided him with camp basketballs. Since he took over as the Badgers’ coach in 2001, Ryan has stayed loyal to the company, based in Puyallup, Wash. Players and coaches from the Big Ten gripe about the Sterling basketballs, citing them as one of the challenges of playing at Kohl Center in Madison.

It is perhaps no coincidence, then, that the Badgers have a 91.7 winning percentage at Kohl Center under Ryan. For his part, Ryan dismissed the idea that the basketballs played a role in helping to build the impressive home record.

“I never really worried about the ball too much,” Ryan said. “But Sterling, the main reason is because they did our camps. They always delivered on time; they always delivered a good product; the balls stayed in shape.”

Some coaches said they would be in favor of using a standard basketball nationally, but they also acknowledged that there would probably be resistance to uniformity because of the contracts that bind universities or coaches to certain brands.

“I’m a Nike guy, so if there was a uniform ball, I’d want it to be Nike,” Marquette Coach Buzz Williams said.

“That’s how my kids get Christmas presents, so, yeah, I want to use Nike.”

A spokesman said that N.C.A.A. members could propose a change if they desired, but that he was not aware of any proposals to that end.

Even though teams may practice with the basketballs used by their opponents before trips, coaches are reluctant to discuss the issue with their players. They say they fear such a conversation could effect players mentally, leading them to worry more about the basketballs than about playing the game.

When Villanova Coach Jay Wright was a wiry guard at Bucknell, he preferred basketballs that had deep grooves. The Spalding Top Flite 100 was his favorite, he said. But he would shoot poorly if he had to play with a MacGregor X10L.

“That used to really affect me as a shooter,” Wright said. “I probably should give more credence to that with my guys. Shooters are like pitchers or golfers. It’s feel. If they don’t have a good feel with the ball, it can affect them mentally.”

Whether it is a psychological or a physical phenomenon, a feel for a particular basketball could help explain a player’s performance. And it can be a positive thing, too.

When Notre Dame played at Pittsburgh last season, Fighting Irish Coach Mike Brey overheard guard Carleton Scott comment that he loved Spalding basketballs upon seeing them in a rack at Pittsburgh’s gymnasium. Brey recalled that Scott said that he played with Spalding basketballs in high school.

That night, Scott made 5 of 6 attempts from 3-point range on his way to scoring 16 points as 15th-ranked Notre Dame defeated No. 2 Pittsburgh.

Afterward, while speaking with members of his staff, Brey explained the reason for Scott’s offensive outburst, saying: “I told our coaches, ‘He loves that ball.’ ”

A version of this article appears in print on March 2, 2012, on page B11 of the New York edition with the headline: Home-Court Edge Begins With Ball. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe